Previous Post
Next Post

Even after the elaborate launch of their first entry into the AR market (read Jeremy’s review of the SAINT here) Springfield Armory isn’t letting any grass grow under their feet on the handgun side of the business either. They’ll be rolling out five new pistols at this week’s SHOT Show here in Las Vegas. We’ll do our best to be first in line at the range today to give them a go. Details in this press release:

New Pistols Represent EMP®, XD® Mod.2® and 1911 TRP™ Product Lines

GENESEO, ILL. (01/16/17) – Springfield Armory® is proud to announce an array of new firearms for the free and independent at the 2017 SHOT Show. The new guns, anchored by Springfield Armory®’s new SAINT™ AR-15 rifle, represent the company’s commitment to enabling law-abiding citizens to protect themselves and their loved ones. While the new guns are equally at home on the recreational and competitive ranges, they’re all designed for serious defensive use should the need arise.

Springfield is proud to announce and demonstrate at SHOT Show 2017 the new SAINT™ rifle and five new handguns including the XD® Mod.2® Tactical in .45 ACP, the XD® Mod.2® Service Model in .45 ACP, the EMP® Lightweight Champion™ with Concealed Carry Contour, the EMP® All Black, and the 1911 TRP™ Operator, Tactical Gray.

“We’re committed to protecting Springfield Armory®’s storied legacy,” stated the company’s CEO, Dennis Reese. “The way we do that each and every day is to design and build the very best products we can to help our customers protect their legacies. It’s an incredible responsibility that drives us, and we’re very proud to bring these new products to market.”

The Springfield Armory® SAINT™ is the company’s groundbreaking entry into the AR-15 market and redefines what an AR-15 should be. While equally at home on plinking and competition ranges, the SAINT™ is built for defense and packs features valued by warriors into a carbine with a price point at a fraction of what one would expect. With an MSRP of just $899, the SAINT™ brings affordable reliability to the market.

The SAINT™ is an optics ready flat-top design that includes an A2-style front sight and gas block. Aircraft-grade aluminum upper and lower receivers are joined using Springfield Armory®’s Accu-Tite™ system to lock upper and lower receivers into a shake-free system. The SAINT™ features a 16-inch Chrome Moly Vanadium barrel with a 1:8 twist rate and 5.56mm NATO chamber. Micro-polished, Nickel Boron trigger components provide a smooth and crisp break with mil-spec pull weight.

Out of the box, the SAINT™ includes upgraded stock, grip, and handguard components. The Bravo Company PKMT two-piece handguard features KeyMod-compatible attachment points at the eleven, one, and six o’clock positions for accessories. The handguard covers an internal aluminum heat shield yet remains slim for easy handling. The Bravo Company BCM Gunfighter stock offers a generous cheek weld comb, rubber butt pad, and QD and slotted sling attachment points. The Bravo Company Mod 0 Pistol grip provides grip-enhancing texture and a vertical orientation designed to complement the modern combat stance. A flip-up rear sight serves as a backup to optics or as the primary sighting system.

The XD® Mod.2® Tactical brings .45 ACP chambering to the five-inch barrel pistol launched in 2016. The new gun packs 13+1 rounds of big bore ammunition into a package more like that of a standard size 9mm pistol. The XD® Mod.2® Tactical features fiber-optic front sight, low-profile combat rear sight, and all of the ergonomic enhancements of the Mod.2® series including GripZone™ texturing and High-Hand™ beavertail and frame cuts. At home on the competition range or in the hands of law enforcement and legally armed citizens, the XD® Mod.2® Tactical brings controllable high capacity to large caliber pistols.

The new XD® Mod.2® Service Model packs 13+1 rounds of .45 ACP into a slender double stack handgun. With its four-inch barrel and standard size frame, this one is great for a variety of applications including competition, recreation, home defense, and concealed carry. The Mod.2® ergonomics enhancements make this .45 ACP easy to control and a pleasure to shoot. The XD® Mod.2® Service Model has all the quality mechanics one expects: hammer-forged Carbon steel Melonite® barrel, forged steel Melonite® slide, fiber optic front and low profile rear sight, and a dual spring recoil system. All of that is packed into 7.3 inches of overall length and 5.75 inches of height. With its width of just 1.22 inches, it’s hard to believe it’s a double-stack .45.

For 1911 enthusiasts and serious large caliber shooters, the company is announcing the 1911 TRP™ Operator, Tactical Gray. The original TRP™ pistol was designed as a consumer-friendly alternative to high-end custom shop 1911s. Modeled after the FBI Contract pistol, the TRP™ redefines what a production gun can be. The TRP™ Operator, Tactical Gray includes a tasteful, and exceptionally durable gray Armory Kote™ frame finish mated with a forged steel black Armory Kote™ slide. The new model also includes an accessory rail for attachment of lights or lasers and an adjustable, low-profile rear sight.

The EMP® Lightweight Champion™ with Concealed Carry Contour brings a new, even easier to conceal member to the EMP® family. Having earned the reputation of the most elegant and shootable carry pistols, it only made sense to bring new carry-friendly versions to market. The mainspring housing is bevel cut to fit more comfortably in hand and conceal more easily by eliminating the telltale bulge caused by the grip base. Like the original EMP®, the new model features a hardcoat anodized frame matched with a brushed stainless steel slide. A fiber optic front sight, low-profile rear sight, and G10 grips round out the package.

The EMP® All Black proves that good looks can be discreet too. This 9mm pistol sports a three-inch barrel, black hardcoat anodized frame, and a black Armory Kote™ slide. Attractive and durable Cocobolo wood grips, fiber optic front sight, and low-profile combat rear sight complete the pistol. Each EMP® All Black ships with three 9-round steel magazines.

The SAINT™ and all five new handguns will be displayed at the 2017 Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoors Trade (SHOT) Show the week of January 16, 2017, and are available for order immediately.

About Springfield Armory®

“The First Name in American Firearms,” Springfield Armory® was founded in 1777, when George Washington ordered the creation of an armory to store ammunition and gun carriages during the American Revolution. In 1794, the armory began to manufacture muskets and spent the next 150 years supplying firearms for every major American conflict. The original armory closed in 1968. In 1974, the Reese family took ownership of the Springfield Armory® name and began making the M1A™ rifle. Today, Springfield Armory® develops many products loyal to the company’s heritage, like the 1911 pistol, while ensuring its future with innovative products, including the XD®, XD® Mod.2®, XD(M)® and XD-S® polymer pistols and now the new SAINT™ AR-15 rifle.

Previous Post
Next Post

26 COMMENTS

    • The company motto is “Making money selling you slightly better versions of the same-old same-old since 1974′

      Or “Creativity? That’s for the other guys.”

      • From the creators of “MOD.2” and “GRIPZONE!” comes a suspenseful new thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat…!

      • Unlike Glock which came out with an innovative modular design. Oh wait a minute, that was SiG. /sarc

        News flash! The Modern semi-automatic handgun was invented 100+ years ago. There isn’t a whole lot of innovation left so every manufacturer hypes small design changes to get the gun buying public to give them their hard earned money. Until the hand phaser goes on the market we are just going to get the same old, same old in slightly modified packaging.

        • Yup.
          I’m reminded of Saturday’s story from KRISS. Their Vector is innovative, original and WAY too expensive to sell enough units to keep the lights on -so they’re switching to an AR rifle in .22?
          Innovation is great, but often doesn’t make money.

  1. I guess I’l have to give up on a compact Mod2 with a 3.8″ barrel. It seems it is either an anemic sub-compact 3″ model or a full-size frame 4″ bbl.

  2. i’m about 80% with understanding the cz line of model designation craziness.
    this pistol presser has three paragraphs of 16″ ar description and then goes into high beaver grip hold zone xd(?) no idea.
    so the 9mm holds 9 rounds and the .45 holds thirteen.

    • It’s not really outsourced, it’s because it’s actually a Croatian gun, invented by Croatia awhile ago, that Springfield bought the rights to sell in the United States. So it’s really kindve an import. But, you are right it is not an American gun, nor is it American made.

    • The original “Croatian Sensation” was the HS2000. Springfield had a version made with their branding, and that was the first XD.

  3. ‘EMP All Black 9mm’

    Soooo, lemme get this straight. The grips are wood colored, the trigger and barrel breech to end are raw polished steel. Is this a tribute to the football team, or did they just flat-out lie to the blind guy who writes the ad copy? It’s one of the least black of their offerings.

  4. There’s really not much of a basis for significant innovation, technology wise.

    Smokeless powders have been around for more than a century. That, metallurgy and human physical constraints set the fundamental performance limits on handgun and rifle design.

    Since then, powder formulations, metallurgy, and machining technology have all advanced. Polymers have been introduced for more and more firearm parts. And recently projectile design has undergone a mini-renaissance. Each of these areas has ushered in a mini-renaissance, let’s call it (e.g. Stoner’s AR concept, the H&K VP70, etc.), but the basic performance limits remain.

    To see a truly revolutionary firearm, I think you’ll need a truely revolutionary advance in energy storage. For instance, a 23-grain pellet at 8300 ft/sec (2.5 km/sec, or about Mach 7.5) would have the same momentum and recoil as a standard 230gr .45 ACP ball round, but would deliver 10x the muzzle energy. That, however, would likely require something like a railgun, and a far higher fast-discharge-capable energy storage density than we can now get out of capacitors. (A “supercap” that can store the energy of a .22LR round is about the size of a 1-liter soda bottle, according to what you can get commercially online today.)

    So, until someone comes up with a new foundational technology, I think we’ll be here for a while. That said, I’m not trying to be a downer, I think there’s lots of fun already to be had and plenty of innovation space left to fill. I just have adjusted my expectations according to what the present limits seem to be.

    • Fun fact that I learned only recently despite being a long term Springfield guy. The grip safety is there because the XD pistols are the functional equivalent of a single action trigger. The trigger just releases the fully cocked striker. The trigger on a Glock completes the cocking action. This is why the XD pistols have a much smother trigger than a Glock and most similar designs. And it gives you the added protection of not shooting yourself when your slightly untucked shrit gets caught inside the trigger guard.

  5. Lotta hate on the springfields….
    Love my xdm. And my 1911 loaded.
    Who cares if it’s made in Croatia. I have had mine for around 8 years and I’ve run it hard. Never had a single failure with it. I would trust my life with it. My wife loves it too.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here